The feature for dashed and dotted lines lets people change the line style with a single click, Adobe said. In addition, gradient fills and other color effects can be applied. Although Adobe didn't promise the features for CS6, the new version is due in the first half of 2012 and Adobe has with earlier versions teased about upcoming features to drum up interest.

The line changes are part of "vector improvements" for Photoshop. Vector graphics are mathematical constructs that can be resized or otherwise altered without loss of quality; in comparison, Photoshop chiefly is used to handle bitmap images that consist of a grid of pixels with different color values.

Adobe's full-on vector design software is Illustrator, but there is some overlap between it and Photoshop.

Effects such as gradient fills can be applied to vector-style lines in Photoshop CS6.
screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET

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Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and covers browsers, Web development, digital photography and new technology. In the past he has been CNET's beat reporter for Google, Yahoo, Linux, open-source software, servers and supercomputers. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces.
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